Five PR1MA projects allocated for Penang: Shahidan

KUALA LUMPUR: Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim has refuted Penang Housing Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo's claim, recently, that not a single project of the 1Malaysia People's Housing Programme (PR1MA) was allocated for the state.
In fact, Shahidan said five PR1MA projects with a total of 15,392 units were destined for the DAP-led state, namely in Sungai Pinang (6,796 units), Teluk Kumbar (3,944), Permatang Pauh (1,017), Batu Ferringhi (1,248) and Tasek Gelugor (2,387).
"This goes to show Jagdeep's claim that no PR1MA projects are being built in Penang is baseless and malicious. He needs to get his facts right. Instead of bickering, he should assist PR1MA by helping to speed up the approval process," he said in a statement, today.
Of these projects in the state, Shahidan noted that PR1MA in Permatang Pauh had commenced construction, while PR1MA in Batu Ferringhi and Tasek Gelugor were still pending for approval, and PR1MA in Sungai Pinang and Teluk Kumbar were still in the midst of consultation with the Penang state government.
Apart from the claim, Jagdeep, who is also Dato Keramat assemblyman, was also reported on Monday to have said that only 1,332 from a total of 625,000 of PR1MA units promised by the government were completed to date.
Shahidan, however, clarified that PR1MA had in fact completed 10,199 units all over the country and was optimistic to achieve its target of completing 17,000 units by the year-end.
He explained that under the Barisan Nasional manifesto, PR1MA was mandated to develop 500,000 units within five years, subject to allocation on a yearly basis by the federal government, and not 625,000 units as mentioned by Jagdeep.
He further clarified that PR1MA's Members of Corporation to date had approved the development of 259,881 units nationwide of which 141,661 were under various stages of construction, with an estimated gross development value (GDV) of RM35.4 billion, adding that 11,944 units had been sold with an estimated GDV of RM3 billion.
Thus, Shahidan urged the opposition to stop using inaccurate information to further create confusion among the public in the hope of gaining political mileage.
He also likened the DAP to a "broken record", in which they kept harping on the same stale issues, while describing Jagdeep's statement as a desperate attempt to divert attention away from the Tanjung Bungah landslide tragedy.
He said PR1MA should be applauded for its commitment to not only providing fairly-priced homes for the middle-income group (M40), but also in helping to bring about positive changes in the country's property sector as a whole.
"We should give credit when it is due," he said, adding that prior to PR1MA, not many developers were interested to build homes for the M40. — Bernama